Mankind produces about 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases each year. Industrial production, which accounts for 31 percent of emissions, and electricity and transport, which account for 27 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, account for the largest share. There is only agriculture or transportation behind them.
Gates argues that the United States should take the lead in global emissions reductions. He therefore welcomed the decision of new President Joe Biden to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement.
But he called on the United States to increase investment to $ 35 billion a year to improve climate protection and clean energy resources. “If climate change is a big deal, why shouldn’t most countries mobilize energy R&D budgets?” Gates quoted the company as saying. Bloomberg.
In addition, according to Gates, the focus of researchers and governments is now on the wrong direction. “Cars, renewable energy sources, almost all the money now goes to these areas. Not into complex things like steel and cement production. Work on these things has not started yet,” the millionaire said in an interview with the television station. CBS.
“Cement and steel are not much talked about, but their production is worth 16 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions. Demand is still rising,” he said. Gates and Brett Energy Ventures, along with other billionaires, are investing in carbon cure, for example, developing technologies for the permanent storage of carbon dioxide in concrete. At the same time, Gates is one of the world’s largest proponents of CO2 capture technologies developed directly from the air.
But the billionaire sees the greatest hope in further developing nuclear power. It relies on a new small type of furnace from Terrapower, which heats liquid sodium instead of water. Thus they are more efficient and safer because they do not operate with high operating pressures.
“We can build nuclear power so that none of the disasters of the past happen again. I agree that it will be almost as hard to convince people to build a reactor,” Gates said.
Nuclear support does not mean that Gates rejects renewable energy sources. According to him, the sun and wind will take care of 80 percent of mankind’s energy needs, but the rest cannot be guaranteed without the production of greenhouse gases other than with the help of nuclear energy.
Gates admits that his lifestyle is not exactly organic. “I have the largest carbon footprint of any people in the world,” he said. But he is trying to make up for it. He buys fuel from plants on his private jet and he started using an electric car.
It compensates for its personal emissions by paying companies that take CO2 out of the air and store it underground. Balancing Gates’ personal emissions costs $ 7 million a year, and the millionaire insists on those who can.
The same goes for buying organic products. If there is a need for them, it will help in further development. As a result, it will help reduce global emissions, Gates concludes.
